In the ongoing collaboration between New Sounds and the Ojai Music Festival, called Ojai On the Air, listen to American bass-baritone Davóne Tines and members of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) perform work by the spiritual and provocative composer Julius Eastman. Tines, a member of AMOC, is a path-breaking artist whose work blends opera, art song, contemporary classical music, spirituals, gospel, and songs of protest; he is also a co-creator and co-librettist of music films and music theater experiences.

Julius Eastman was a singer, pianist, and composer on the so-called downtown music scene in New York in the 1970s, both on his own and as a collaborator with artists like vocalist/choreographer/composer Meredith Monk and the late experimental American cellist Arthur Russell. Eastman was young, gay, and Black at a time when it was even more difficult to be young, gay, and Black" (New Amsterdam Records Bandcamp liner notes).

Davóne Tines and host John Schaefer discuss Julius Eastman’s work, Tines’ connection to Eastman’s lineage, and how the program Tines and AMOC prepared honors Eastman as a complete human, exploring the breadth and depth of his life and influence. Listen to Eastman’s extraordinary piece Buddha, his ecstatic Gay Guerilla, and the Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan of Arc for which Tines had to research and create a score, as Eastman did not leave a lot of written notation when he died in 1990.

This is Part 1 of a four-part series for 2022. The performances and interview were recorded at the 2022 Ojai Music Festival.  -Caryn Havlik

Watch the entire EASTMAN concert from Ojai 2022:

Program #4668, Ojai On the Air 2022, Part 1 (First aired 10/03/2022)

ARTIST: Davóne Tines
WORK: Julius Eastman: Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan of Arc [8:12]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | runningamoc.org

ARTIST: American Modern Opera Company
WORK: Julius Eastman: Gay Guerilla [27:58]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | runningamoc.org

ARTIST: Davóne Tines, members of American Modern Opera Company
WORK: Julius Eastman: Buddha [4:56]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | runningamoc.org